On Wednesday night in Lexington, the Mississippi State Bulldogs were defeated by the Kentucky Wildcats, 90-77.
The Cats never truly slowed down after getting off to a fast start. Kentucky’s offensive explosion and defensive adjustments in the first half saw them take a 47-29 lead and eliminate the Bulldogs from the contest.
Following the interval, MSU scored 14 runs in less than three minutes to start the half and trim the Kentucky advantage to six. But Kentucky came back stronger, maintaining the lead and eventually pulling away for their third conference victory.
It was John Calipari’s 400th career victory at Kentucky, and you can imagine he was pleased with his team’s 90-point performance against the ninth-ranked defence according to KenPom.
The Cats will play the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday night after that.
Here are three things to take away from SEC play’s third victory.
This season, Antonio Reeves has been incredibly reliable and talented. With the rumours of an offseason transfer, there were doubts about Reeves’ commitment to the team and his consistency, which cast doubt on his status as the Cats’ top scorer.
That hasn’t presented any problems. Reeves was just what this squad needed in a return player. He’s improved to the point where he can now score at three levels. In addition to hitting the glass this season, he has additional ways to score when the shots aren’t falling from deep.
This season, Antonio Reeves has been incredibly reliable and talented. With the rumours of an offseason transfer, there were doubts about Reeves’ commitment to the team and his consistency, which cast doubt on his status as the Cats’ top scorer.
That hasn’t presented any problems. Reeves was just what this squad needed in a return player. He’s improved to the point where he can now score at three levels. He can score in various ways when the deep shots aren’t falling, in addition to hitting theReeves ranks third in the SEC in scoring per game this year with an average of 19 points. With so many mouths to feed on this incredibly brilliant squad, that’s astounding. More than half of the Cats’ games this season have seen Reeves score 20 points or more.
Kentucky’s offense is really good, but they’re at their best with the high-scoring veteran on the court, especially when you pair him with Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham.
This team’s calling card is protecting and sharing the basketball. They run all game long, but they do an incredible job, especially for such a young team, of not turning the ball over and finding open teammates.
This team averages close to a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That’s impressive for a single player. That’s elite for an entire team. Last time out, despite the loss, the Cats had 22 assists on just 32 made field goals. It was close to the same in this one.
The main reason this team scores so well is for this reason. And the reason they’re so good at doing it is because they have multiple guards that can handle the ball and find open teammates. There really aren’t any ball hogs out there. The chemistry is excellent, and these guys genuinely seem to enjoy setting up their teammates.
Kentucky’s Achilles’ heel this season is simple: defense. Well, defense and rebounding, but those oftentimes go hand-in-hand. Significant defensive improvements don’t happen overnight, but progression is possible from game to game.
One of the biggest parts of defense is simply effort. Some guys are physically gifted and truly perfect the defensive craft, but the effort will get most guys at this level a long way. I don’t mean to insinuate that this team isn’t out there hustling, but I do wonder if all of the energy is being expended on the offensive end.
As mentioned above, rebounding is an issue, too, as well as physicality. It doesn’t help that Adou Thiero has now missed five straight games, but it doesn’t totally explain the issues, either. This game wasn’t perfect, but Cal challenged this team to step it up defensively, and they did seem to take it a bit personally. The energy was much better (other than the first three minutes of the second half). The rebounding was better. It was a good all-around effort.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Ugonna Onyenso. This kid’s shot-blocking ability is really remarkable. He’s averaging 2.5 blocks per game in under 15 minutes per contest. He had five blocks in Saturday’s loss against the Aggies, and he swatted an additional four shots in this one. Onyenso is also a solid rebounder. He’s a big piece for this team going forward.
All in all, it was a great bounce-back game for the Cats. Kentucky’s six-game win streak ended on Saturday, but let’s hope an even longer one is just getting started.
